Poll: Should the European Commission have a public inauguration ceremony?

It’s the stuff of Europhile dreams and Euroskeptic nightmares, and you can vote on it here.

European Parliament Secretary General Klaus Welle has won the backing of the institution’s executive committee for an elaborate ceremonial swearing-in of the next European Commission president.

That doesn’t mean the ceremony really will happen — we’re a few steps away from that, including getting the next President to agree to appear.

If it happens, the ceremony will more resemble a US-style presidential inauguration than the current low-key and indoor swearing-in by judges from the European Court of Justice.

Welle thinks a public ceremony is the right finale for the Spitzenkandidat process that in 2014 saw Jean-Claude Juncker, the lead candidate of the European People’s Party which won the most seats in the European election, go on to become Commission president.

Interestingly it was the Party of European Socialists that won more votes in the election, and there may be changes to the system ahead of the 2019 election.

Should the next @EU_Commission president have an American-style open-air public swearing-in ceremony? #EU Parliament's executive says yes.